Thursday, prices of oil continues to rise, steadily approaching near two-year highs as the OPEC-led deal to cut output have resulted to a tighter market and drained inventories. The international benchmark: Brent crude futures traded at $60.62 a barrel, which was up by 0.2% or 13 cents from their last settlement.
In accordance to this, the international benchmark capped $61.70 on Wednesday, which is considered as Brent’s highest intraday level since July 2015. Meanwhile, the United States West Texas Intermediate settled at $54.54 a barrel which was 0.4% or 24 cents higher from their previous close; the U.S. crude was also 30% above its 2017 lows experienced in June.
These changes in the prices of oil were boosted by the effort lead by the OPEC or the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as well as Russia to limit out supply in order to balance the the persisting global crude supply glut. In accordance to this, Khalid al-Falih, the Saudi Arabian Energy Minister mentioned that the effort performed by the OPEC along with Russia had been excellent.
In addition, Mark Watkins, regional investment manager at United States Bank claimed that compliance as a whole for the organization (OPEC) ended up strong, especially now that they have flipped the calendar to November where the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will be having a meeting at the end of the month.